The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker,
THE appearance of the first volume of a complete edition of Dekker's plays in the lni- .old spelling and with a critical apparatus ust be very welcome to any student of the lizabethan theatre. It is eighty years since e last complete edition, which is now a ifle outdated due to advances in knowledge d editorial technique. It is a pity, however, at Professor Fredson Bowers has not seen t to help the general reader by providing ome notes on other than purely textual a ‘ tters. The importance of Dekker partly consists in his having been at the centre of
the stormy collaborations and controversies of his time, and a play like Satiromastix needs all the explaining it can get. This edition will not become a great quarry for students like Herford and Simpson's Ben Jonson or
1 L u ca s 's Webster, but, within its limits, it oes a useful job. It is, in any case, a pure leasurc to read The Shoemaker's Holiday r Old Fortunatus once again. Who writes ... rose or verse of this meaty quality for the stage nowadays? Dekker was no prince, but he was princely born.
A. H.
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